South Franklin Circle files pre-packaged bankruptcy

Bloomberg reports that South Franklin Circle, a nonprofit continuing care retirement community in Chagrin Falls, has filed a “pre-packaged bankruptcy” with a plan to reduce its total secured debt by about 40%.

The company listed assets of $167.2 million and debt of $166.3 million, measured by book value, as of Dec. 31 in Chapter 11 documents filed Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Cleveland, according to the news service. In fiscal years 2010 and 2011, the company had net losses of $9.3 million and $7.8 million, respectively, Bloomberg says.

“The economic downturn has caused lower than expected occupancy rates at South Franklin Circle, which has led to South Franklin Circle not being able to independently service its debt,” CEO Cynthia Dunn said in court papers. Bloomberg notes that about 53% of the 199 independent living units and more than half of the 40 assisted-living units are occupied, according to court papers.

The company said the proposed plan “is supported by the requisite majority of its pre-bankruptcy secured lenders,” Bloomberg notes. South Franklin Circle will swap current secured debt totaling about $100.6 million for a new bond and term-note secured debt of $66.75 million, court papers show.

The 239-unit community, for adults over 50, sits on 90 acres about 25 miles southeast of Cleveland. The company employs about 103 full-time and part-time workers.

Residents of the South Franklin Circle facility will be unaffected by the restructuring as membership agreements will be honored, according to court papers.

A lot of ground to make up:This cannot be a good sign for Senate candidate Josh Mandel.

The Wall Street Journal reports the battle for control of the Senate “has become even more volatile in the closing days of the campaign, with an increasing number of races across the nation becoming evenly matched. Less than two weeks before the election, several races that appeared settled are turning competitive. That includes Democratic-leaning states like Connecticut and Republican states like Arizona, a recent addition to the tossup list.”

The story highlights 10 races that are extremely competitive — three labeled as “Democratic-leaning,” five characterized as “Republican-leaning” and two identified as “traditional tossups.”

However, Mr. Mandel's race is not among those 10. As The Journal notes, “Ohio and Florida were expected to be highly competitive, but incumbent Sens. Sherrod Brown and Bill Nelson have maintained consistent leads.”

The Rodney Dangerfields of the corporate world: Midsize companies get no respect, according to this piece from Businessweek.com.

The National Center for the Middle Market, which is part of Ohio State University's Fisher School of Business, calculates that U.S. companies with revenue between $10 million and $1 billion a year “account for one-third of private-sector output,” according to the website. “But big companies get all the attention, because they're big, and small companies get all the love, because they're perceived as the champions of job creation.”

Businessweek.com says the center is studying these neglected midsize companies with funding from GE Capital, the biggest supplier of financing to the sector. The center conducts a quarterly survey of 1,000 companies that's designed to reflect the composition of the entire sector.

On Oct. 24, the website notes, “the center announced that middle market companies increased head count by 2.2 percent over the 12 months through the third quarter, outpacing what it said was 1.7 percent growth in economywide employment.” (The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the economywide figure at 1.4 percent.)

“Quarter after quarter, we see middle market firms emerge as the engine of growth in the U.S. economy,” said Anil Makhija, the center's academic director, in a statement.

Out of the past: If you want to know more about the Wari — who from about 600 to 1000 reigned over land stretching from the highlands of central Peru, centered near the present-day city of Ayacucho, to the Pacific coastal zones below — an exhibit opening Sunday at the Cleveland Museum of Art is a great place to do it.

The Wall Street Journal interviews Susan E. Bergh, organizer of the exhibit, “Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andies.” The newspaper says it's the first North American exhibition devoted to the Wari.

“I want people to understand that civilization in the Andes way predates the Inca and that the Wari was a very complicated, sophisticated civilization," she tells The Journal. "And I want people to see how beautiful and enchanting it is."

The paper says Ms. Bergh, the museum's curator of the arts of the ancient Americas, “has assembled about 150 objects — intricate textiles, ceramic vessels, colorful featherwork hangings and four-cornered hats, inlaid ornaments, and stone and wood sculptures — from 45 museums and private collections in the Americas and Europe.”